Fort Nassau to a condition of defence, and was charged on this account with extravagance in the expenditure of public funds.

In 1633, the Dutch made another attempt at a settlement, and a purchase was made by Arondt Corssen on the banks of the Schuylkill, where, in the same year, Fort Beversrede was erected, soon to be abandoned. On which Mr. Armstrong remarks: "the readiness which the natives manifested to part with their territory was equalled only by their willingness to sell it again to any who might choose to purchase it."

In 1635, a party of English adventurers from Connecticut, under the command of George Holmes, made an unsuccessful attempt upon the fort, were taken prisoners, and were sent to Manhattan, where they were pardoned, and allowed to settle in the vicinity of Fort Amsterdam-they being the first English to acquire a habitation in the New Netherlands."

Fort Nassau remained with more or less of a garrison until the Dutch themselves destroyed it in 1650, as "being too high up and too much out of the way."3

Such were the principal events during the first period of Dutch rule. The attempts to plant colonies proved to be failures, for while Fort Nassau seems to have been irregularly maintained, it was rather as a fortified trading place, than as the nucleus of a colony. The ill-fated effort of DeVries under the Goodyn purchase had been made under the auspices of an assembly of eleven Delegates, to whom was entrusted, by virtue of the charter, the supervision and government of the West Indian Company. Freedom and exemption were offered to all such as should establish any

1 Introduction to Record of Upland Court, by Edward Armstrong,

Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. vii., p. 15.

'Armor's Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania, p. 28.

'O'Callaghan's Hist. of New Netherlands, i, 90.

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colonies. Those who were disposed to avail themselves of these privileges were, under certain restrictions, obliged to "plant a colony of fifty souls," and might occupy a territory of four Dutch miles along a navigable river, and "as far into the country as their situation might permit,” and received, among other feudal rights, the power of administering justice. In fact, among the leading features of the chartered privileges of the West India Company were the administration of Justice, the preservation of order, the maintenance of police, and the appointment of judicial and executive officers. There was also an express provision that the Roman law, the imperial statutes of Charles V, and the edicts, resolutions, and customs of the Fatherland were to be received as the paramount rule of action in New Netherlands, except in cases specially provided for by the will of the Company, expressed in their instructions, or declared in their military or marine ordinances.3

The execution of these ambitious grants of power was brought to naught by the melancholy extinction of Gilles Hossett and his companions, in the blackened and bloodstained Valley of the Swans.

SWEDISH RULE.

In 1638, the Swedes appeared. Their coming was without a shadow of right under the law of nations. It has been asserted that Charles I had, by deed, relinquished to Sweden the English rights upon the Delaware, but the deed has never been found, and no English statesman or historian has ever admitted its existence. The true explanation lies in the conduct of two dissatisfied servants of the Dutch.

1 A Dutch mile was equal to four English miles.

2 Introduction to the Record of Upland Court, by Edward Armstrong, Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. vii., p. 12. 3 O'Callaghan, i, 90.

A Short Description of the Province of New Sweden, by Thomas Campanius Holm, Memoirs of Hist. Soc. of Pa., vol. iii, p. 68.

In 1626, William Usselincx, a merchant of Antwerp, a truly remarkable man, and the original projector of the Dutch West India Company,' growing sour and sullen, threw up his employment, and for the price of one florin per thousand of merchandise to be exported or imported, persuaded Gustavus Adolphus of the advantages of organizing a Swedish West India Company. The ambition of the conqueror of Tilly, who was the first of the Swedish monarchs to play a great rôle in European history, was aroused by the thought of trading with lands in Africa, America, Magellanica or Terra Australis, and of extending the commerce of his realm, while his zeal as a Protestant was fired by the thought of spreading the truths of the Christian religion. In fact, the plan of colonization was spoken of by him as "the jewel of his kingdom." A charter was granted with most elaborate provisions, and vague and extraordinary powers. The company was to constitute a Council, which, with its officers, should attend to the administration of justice, preserve good laws, continue war, appoint soldiers, governors, directors, and judges, build castles and cities, accommodate differences between citizens of the country and the natives, as well as between directors or chambers, and, finally, preserve everything in good condition.'

In the same year, the Dutch West India Company, as a protective measure, determined to establish its authority in New Netherlands by a formal government with greatly enlarged powers. They appointed a Director, assisted by a Council of Five, and a Schout, who combined the duties of Sheriff and Prosecuting Attorney; there were also inferior magistrates called Schepens. Peter Minuit was chosen

'An interesting account of this extraordinary organizer is given in G. M. Asher's Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets Relating to New Netherlands, N. Y., 1856.

The full text of the Swedish charter is given on pp. 16-20 of Hazard's Annals of Penna., obtained from a rare source, the Argonautica Gustaviana, published by Usselincx in 1663, of which the only copy supposed to be in this country is in the library of Harvard College.

Director and held the office until 1633, when he quarrelled bitterly with the powerful Patroons, and was superseded by Van Twiller, a near relative to the influential Van Rensselaers. Embittered by his removal, he tendered his services to Sweden, whose Chancellor, Oxenstiern, a man of profound combinations, and quite the equal of Richelieu in statecraft, was anxious to carry out the cherished plan of the great Gustavus, who had fallen on the field of Lützen. Accordingly, after some delays, owing to the unsettled state of the finances following the death of the king, Peter Minuit, with a commission in the name of the infant Queen Christina, brought out an expedition in two vessels, ascended the Delaware, purchased the soil of the western shore from Cape Henlopen to a point north of the site of the future Philadelphia, and erected a fort on a small stream in the neighborhood of the present city of Wilmington, which he named Christina.

Kieft, the successor of Van Twiller, as Director of New Amsterdam, protested vigorously against this invasion of Dutch territory. "This has been our property," said he, "for many years, occupied with forts, and sealed with our blood," and then, with a fine personal thrust at Minuit, added, "which was also done when thou wast in the service of New Netherland, and is, therefore, well known to thee." The protest was disregarded. Minuit, who had brought with him about fifty Swedes, displayed skill and enterprise, succeeding in avoiding encounters with the natives and the Dutch, building up an extensive trade in furs, and governing his little colony with vigor, but he died within three years in the bosom of his settlement.1

His successor was Peter Hollander, a Swede, commissioned as Governor of New Sweden by the home government. He

'Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, pp. 15, 18, 20, 42; Armor's Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania, pp. 22, 19, 30; Fisher's Making of Pennsylvania, pp. 16-17; Sergeant's Land Law of Pennsylvania, p. 18; Ferris's Original Settlements on the Delaware, Ch. iii.

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had arrived in 1640 with a ship richly laden with cattle and provisions, at a moment so opportune as to save the colony from the humiliation of self-confessed failure. About this time two bold attempts were made by Englishmen, acting without visible governmental authority, to plant themselves upon the Delaware. One party, under the command of Robert Cogswell, from Connecticut, established itself at the mouth of Salem Creek on the eastern shore. Another party from Virginia sailed past Fort Christina and Fort Nassau, and started a settlement on the River Schuylkill. They were driven off and their works destroyed by an expedition fitted out from New Amsterdam, the Swedes at Christina acting as allies of the Dutch. The Dutch had been told by their Director General that "it was their duty to drive these English from thence."

In 1643 a new Swedish Governor arrived in the person of John Printz, whose commission was dated at Stockholm. The most minute instructions were given for his guidance. He was to maintain friendly relations with the Indians; to hold their trade; to sow grain for the support of his colonists; to plant tobacco; to breed cattle and sheep of high grade; to raise silk worms; to cultivate grapes; to manufacture salt; to search for metals; and to promote the whale fisheries. He brought with him a strong body of settlers, about one hundred in number. Perceiving with the eye of a military man the weakness of Fort Christina for commanding the navigation of the river, he erected a new fort of great strength on Tenna Kong or Tinicum Island, and called it New Gottenburg, which became “the metropolis of the Swedish American Empire," as it was pleasantly denominated by the learned Mr. Duponceau. Here he built a "Stately Palace" of bricks brought from Stockholm, known as Printz Hall, and with a singular admixture of executive, legislative and judicial powers dis

1 Hazard's Annals, p. 61; Armor's Lives of the Governors, p. 32; Acrelius's History of New Sweden.